Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Thing about Miri City ...

I'm a local born fella and I feel proud of the city for its past and present achievements which have obviously been accomplished in leaps and bounds ... There are many positive stuff to be said -- without going into details -- about a once sleepy hollow that used to be famous just for its oil and bars and Monica Lodging ...

There are apparently not so nice stuff I want to share here, one of which is the unfriendly nature of the city towards visitors and I mean specifically those who drive into the city from other countries and towns.

Without comparing too much with great tourism destinations like Kota Kinabalu, New Zealand, the States and Canada we can see how the narrow roads and road signs are so poorly planned and limited in information. Friendly road signs should be treated as beacons of hope and guide to drivers and every distance to locations should be indicated; general directions to all locations should be provided and all facilities such as rest areas, petrol, food and lodging clearly indicated . The signs should also indicate the distances of these areas so that first-time visitors/drivers will know roughly where the places are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read and calculate that 5 km away would be the nearest rest area or loo!

Miri today is just a city like many small towns with the slight difference of the basic requirements of infrastructure that must be available to obtain city status. There is so little around us to remind us of its golden glorious history and the bad past when ambitious egomaniac Japs ruled the Asian region and the many past heroes and founding fathers of the ex-town seem to be conveniently forgotten and unrecognised. Case in point: just take a walk to the oldest Mission school in the city and you will soon realise not a single street is named after its Asian founder or the many pioneers who established the first oldest educational institution. What we have is the name of an unknown dead fella who did nothing for the school or the area on the street sign.

What the city should be doing is put a seasoned traveler in charge of turning this city into a great tourism destination. Mirians have to think like a tourist to attract tourists. A little imagination helps too.